This is an overall view as students from Rockbridge Academy participate in an archeological dig on the grounds of Belvoir plantation. (Barbara Haddock Taylor, Baltimore Sun)

Private schools in Anne Arundel County offer options go beyond the scope of the traditional, public school classroom.

Area private schools also present students with experiential learning opportunities that allow them to master concepts in science and technology. Robust arts programs let young people hone their artistic abilities.

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Indian Creek School serves pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade students. The Crownsville school touts a commitment to project-based learning.

“Not only are you using parts of your brain that remember things, but you’re using your hands and being creative,” said Tiffany McCormick, a spokesperson. Officials at the school noticed students in an AP U.S. History course showed improvement after projects were integrated into the curriculum.

The school is known internationally for its BLinc program. A BLinc is a blended learning class, where part of the course is taught face-to-face and the other portion is taught online.

Indian Creek has two campuses, its lower school is located on Evergreen Road and upper school students are taught on Anne Chambers Way. This school year, it announced the sale of its Evergreen Road campus to Rockbridge Academy.

Sixth graders at both schools will coexist under one roof for about two years until Indian Creek finishes a 35,000 square-foot lower school building on its Anne Chambers Way campus. Rockbridge Academy’s students are spread across spaces the school leases from Baldwin Memorial United Methodist and Grace Independent Baptist churches.

And on the other side of the Severn River is a school where arts are just as integral to the curriculum as history and math. From visual to performing to music, students at Severn School have many options at their fingertips.

“We seek to instill a sense of balance and completion for our truly educated and culturally aware students,” the school’s website says. “Our talented arts faculty members encourage students’ thoughtful respect for and appreciation of beauty, empathy and communication.”

Anne Arundel County is also home to Annapolis Area Christian school, Archbishop Spalding High School, St. Mary’s Annapolis and Rockbridge Academy, where religion is at the forefront.

Rockbridge Academy was founded in the 1990s and specializes in a teaching method based on the Trivium.

“The Trivium is a three stage teaching methodology aligned to the child’s natural development,” admissions director Julie Marsh said. “First, in the Grammar level, memorization and discovery correspond with the young child’s acute ability to observe and remember new things easily.”

The Dialectic age is defined by reason, logic and critical analysis, which takes advantage of adolescent-aged children's’ inclination to argue and ask questions.

“The Rhetoric stage prepares young adults for leadership in service, thought, and character, fully able to express their ideas in a winsome way with clear command of the written and spoken word,” Marsh said.

Like Rockbridge, School of the Incarnation is also known for its commitment to Christian teachings — but that’s not all. The Gambrills school produces award-winning penmen, too. Eighth-grader Joseph Robuck was named a grand national champion in the 2019 Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest — his near-perfect cursive handwriting beat out about 250,000 other submissions.

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Students at School of the Incarnation are expected to learn cursive by the end of third grade. Most public schools have abandoned the font, as Common Core standards adopted in 2010 stopped requiring students learn how to write it.

“Handwriting is an important part of our curriculum,” said Nancy Baker, the school’s principal. “There’s value, not only in the art of it, but in the thought process of putting pen to paper, versus just typing.”